"No space left on device" but I have 174 GiB free

Our Neighbors Asahi Linux Ask Asahi
1

I don’t know how to categorize this or where to report it. I see “no space left on device” when I try to create files at the command line, e.g. in Python:

==> Error: OSError: [Errno 28] No space left on device

but df -H reports:

[benwibking@bens-macbook-pro ~]$ df -H
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs        4.2M     0  4.2M   0% /dev
tmpfs           8.1G     0  8.1G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           3.3G   14M  3.3G   1% /run
/dev/nvme0n1p6  195G   20G  174G  10% /
vendorfw        8.1G   79M  8.1G   1% /usr/lib/firmware/vendor
/dev/nvme0n1p6  195G   20G  174G  10% /home
/dev/nvme0n1p5  1.1G  396M  549M  42% /boot
/dev/nvme0n1p4  524M  133M  392M  26% /boot/efi
tmpfs           8.1G  8.1G     0 100% /tmp
tmpfs           1.7G  6.7M  1.7G   1% /run/user/1000

Is this an Asahi issue, or some strange btrfs issue?

Thanks,
Ben

2

It looks like your system is low on memory. You might check the output of the free command.

Scratch that, it looks like you just have too much data stored under /tmp. Delete some stuff. :slight_smile:

3

Yes that /tmp is full, and since I’m totally worn out, I asked “AI” which gave some seemingly good introductory info (be careful what You are going to apply, I suggest not to go on cron job, third [**3.] AI’s idea). Here is the transcript:


There are a few ways to free the temp directory in a Linux based OS.

**1. Using the `rm` command**

The `rm` command is used to delete files. To delete all files in the temp directory, you can use the following command:

`sudo rm -rf /tmp/*`

The `sudo` command is required to delete files in the `/tmp` directory, as it is a system-wide directory.

**2. Using the `find` command**

The `find` command can be used to find files that match a certain criteria. To find all files in the `/tmp` directory that are older than a certain number of days, you can use the following command:

`sudo find /tmp -type f -mtime +X`

The `-type f` option specifies that you are only interested in files. The `-mtime +X` option specifies that you only want to find files that are older than X days.

Once you have found the files that you want to delete, you can use the `rm` command to delete them.

**3. Using a cron job**

You can also use a cron job to automatically delete the temp directory on a regular basis. A cron job is a task that is scheduled to run at a specific time or interval.

To create a cron job to delete the temp directory, you can use the following command:

`0 0 * * * sudo rm -rf /tmp/*`

This cron job will run at 00:00 (midnight) every day.

Which method you choose to use will depend on your specific needs and preferences.

Here are some additional things to keep in mind when freeing the temp directory:

* Be careful not to delete any important files.
* If you are using the `find` command, make sure to specify the correct criteria so that you do not delete any files that you do not want to delete.
* If you are using a cron job, make sure to set the correct time and interval so that the temp directory is not deleted too often or too rarely.

I hope this helps!```
4

It may also be an inode/metadata exhaustion problem. You may also want to do a btrfs filesystem df / to see what is being exhausted on your btrfs volume.

5

Thanks!

6

I’ve seen circumstances produce the same message when the actual issue is that the file system in question is mounted read-only.

I see this thread is already marked “solved”, but leaving this here in case future me (or anyone else) gets led hear by that particular message.